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depressed coverage of this assination now entering its uh fourth day, we're looking at some uh

hello and welcome. just few hours ago, the iranian consulate in damascus came under a of missile attack and it was completely raised to the ground. so far, what we know is that at least five people, three of them, iranians, have been killed in this attack, and uh, according to the iranian foreign minister and iranian sources, as well as the iranian ambassador in damascus, israel should be held responsible for. this attack, which

is of course, very big red line crossed by the israeli regime, according to both of these officials, and this will be the topic of tonight's show. i'm gisum shah ahmadi and you're watching the spotlight. we will be discussing this attack with our guests, jamal wakiem, professor of international relations of from the lebanese university, joining us live from beirot. and also saib shaath, author and west asia expert who was joining us live from belfast. thank you very much to both of you gentlemen for joining us. now uh, this was the big news of the day, making the headlines and of course uh attracting lot of attention uh, and of course it should, definitely deserves that much attention because...

although we've had israel uh undermining syria's sovereignty time and again attacking different targets in syria soil. this time it crossed very big red line by attacking the consulate of iran right next to its embassy in damascus, raising the whole building to the ground. so mr. jamal wakim, in your opinion, why did israel choose to attack uh the iranian cancel at this point in time? well, first we need to understand the uh nature of the objective targeted by israel, which is the iranian consulat, consider. as iranian territory, we know that embassies and consulates all over the world are considered as territories of the country that they represent, so this is a big red line that israel is crossing, in addition, it's

targeting of course iranian diplomats other than the iranian military commanders, which is another ' factor that needs to be taken in consideration, so why at this time israel is going into such escalation, i believe that it's trying to achieve something a time when it's dragging on, the war is dragging on and it's not being able to achieve tangible results against the on resistance in gaza. nor uh against the armed resistance in lebanon and it might be that the israelis want to turn the attention of the whole world, especially the west away from gaza onto a side conflict that it's trying to drag

iran to in order to justify its continuous war against gaza on one hand. and in order to silence the criticism, some of the criticism against it in the west, especially among some governments which are voicing their concern, western governments, which started to voice their concerns about the human tole in gaza on one hand, and who are considering withdrawing their support to israel in this aggression on the other hand. okay, so mr. shath, our... guest from beirot believes that israel is trying to deviate attention at this point in time from the ongoing genocidal war on gaza uh now before we get into what's going on in gaza and what is exactly the position of israel right now in uh gaza and

whether or not it has been able to achieve any of its military objectives there uh let's uh look at some other um issues that could be taken into consideration, and one of them is the fact that israeli media have been uh stating that they intended to attack a car that was parked in front of the consulate and not the consulate itself, so uh, first of all, aside from the fact that this could not be considered legitimate excuse because the consulatate building has been completely raised to the ground, uh, what does that? mean is israel afraid of any kind of escalation because as our guest in beirot just mentioned, this is very serious provocation. yes, it is very serious provocation, but from what i witnessed lately, the united states of america or the

zis institute, you don't give a damn about what the public opinions internationally is concerned or not, and the the only thing, even his own public. opinion how we see the administrators for the release of their own hostages or they don't give a down, they want to continue war. netanyahu, for him, the war is lifesaver, he can stays in power and he can be immune, so in a way i agree with jamal about the failures in gaza, they cannot even justify any anything to their own public opinion or to the united. of america or the western supporters, they want to move forward, especially after last night when the iraki resistant managed to attack elat navy base and devastated it, actually we seen the

smoke, we seen the panic and the ambulances all of that that direct hit, and the same thing we see the how the palestinian resistance are still in control and design and the americans and the western uh forces who's taken part in there, because we know there is a french on the ground with a dual citizenship, there is american expertise, there is what the... well it surveillance british drones and fighters in the in the region and all of that we see the palestinian still showing a formidable resistance and in yemen uh as well the resistance camp in yemen extended its influence and made the american armada from air carriers fighter jets carriers and ships looks like absolute in the region and it's extended the influence of the targets we said will reach from the arabian

sea, the red sea, the the the indian ocean even to africa, so after the any any zinis ships or in or going toward the z ship, so they seen all of that and they know before few couple of months ago they were talking about devastating syria, to isolate syria totally of... from the supply chain as they call it of the resistance and that's why we seen how they sneak with their fighter just from the tenaf which is supported and protected that region by american radars and american uh surveillance system to go and hit in in in alipo and the same thing uh we see the resistance as well is increasing its own uh activities to target and keep the momentum high to target the z entity. if you can see

there is the irakis hit as well in in in haifa and in ilat and the yemen is as well and the lebanese resistance is scalating with using a new weapons and new techniques all of that, but the american hegemony in that region in aquation and this is why we see there is consensus in the west in supporting. designist entity, even not even complicit in genocide with it, but even party to the genocidal war. so targeting an iranian property and an iranian sovereign piece of land like the embassy and the consult in there, it's escalating that because they believe uh themselves without the iranian technology and transfer the know how to the resistance in gaza or in in yemen or in in lebanon, they or in iraq, they won't be able

to to direct such blows, so there is escalation here, and the the israel is already raised the the alarm to all of their ambasses around the world to to be on the guard. okay, so mr. wakim, before we delve into the issues that were just raised by mr. shath, has israel achieved any of its. military objectives, the ones that it stated before it started the war on gaza, so far israel didn't achieve any of its declared objectives, it couldn't destroy the resistance there, it couldn't free the prisoners of war and it couldn't expel the palestinian people out of gaza strip onto siini as it intended. "the only thing that israel was able to achieve there was to target civilians, destroy gaza, the whole

infrastructure, the target civilians and kill more than 35000 civilians so far, most of them are children and and women, and of course it's trying to terrorize the..." the civilian population as mean to render what was considered as victory achieved by the resistance into a very costly victory, that's what the israelis are trying to do, and of course this is part of their tradition, part their culture to to commit genocide against the arabs and this... was this is not the first time that they massacker civilian people, we we have hundreds of evidence

throughout the arab israeli struggle. as far as it concerns for example, the military strikes against lebanon and syria, they have been able to target some high ranking officials and this is due to the b they feel in their conflict against the resistance both in gaza and in southern lebanon and of course against thehis and the resistance in. because they think that it it's iran that is supporting all these resistance factions and a common cause against the israeli occupation and colonization of palestine, so this is what's going on and this is how we could understand israeli actions. so mr. shath, as

our guest from beirut just... clearly stated, israel has not been able to achieve any of its military objectives, the one that it had stated at the beginning uh of this war, and on the other hand, like our guest said, we have over uh 35,000 palestinians killed, more than 75,000 injured in these attacks, that is now being called a genicidal war, israel has a court case in the icj against it, the... investigations are ongoing, it even has provisional uh ruling that has been issued. we are seeing demonstrations in countries that uh were traditionally the allies of israel. now we're seeing people coming out chanting slogans against the israeli regime. where does this leave the zionist entity? the

zionist entity, let's say it historically put it in the perspective from "the time when the french revolution came with the slogan of jewish emancipation, it was an idea to cleanse all the the jews from europe and put them in in palestine, and this is when the french let their campaign and occupied egypt and tried to occupy palestine in 1799. ponapart failed in creating design entity, which is today is there and to make it as a tool for his own." nation of the world, the english then achieved that goal and that, so the zinus entity all along, it was a colonial project, it doesn't matter the lies, these the zianist secular or religious factions of it they can produce, we notice the zienist factions, the right wing was allied to nazi

germany and organized with hitler their own evacuation of of jesus before the holocaus. to the to to palestine and the left of the zionist like hagana and all of that factions of terrorist groups were allied to the british so they were bitting in the in the in in the two horses in the game if the german wins the nazis they are with them winning and if the the the uh the united states of america and the british and the soviet union won they are with them as well so this is what we see it's it's always the they put themselves as to be the prize of the of the owner in there and to function as its own military base there and so in the this is what they are, so israel doesn't give a dam, it's shield by the international law, and they think they are above the the law because they are so, i'm sorry to cut you off right

there, because we have a limited amount of time, but um we can conclude by what you and our guest from beiro just said that israel is its weakest point ever in history uh because it has a un resolution against it, it's a staunch ally, the us abstained from voting this time uh, it has been isolated politically from a diplomatic point of view, it has definitely lost the propaganda war uh, and whenever israel is at it's a weak point, it usually carries out these attacks, it's not the first time this is happening to iran, we've had razi musavi general. brigadier general razi musavi, another irgc commander that was targeted just four months ago, so uh mr. wakim, what do you think this attack means considering uh all the issues that were just raised? well, this attack is a big infringement on iran's sovereignty and of

course israel is trying to pull iran into a... direct conflict uh, well, if i put myself in the shoes of the iranian officials, they are in a very dire uh situation, because if they retaliate, if they react, they will be, they might be playing the game of israel, and if they don't, they would be, let's say embarrassed internationally by ' israel, so it's a very delicate equation here, would iran retaliate right now or leave it to another opportunity? unity, especially that the conflict is open and it will drag on in the future, we shall wait and see, but i

believe that iran has been hit hard and maybe it needs to retaliate, to react to such an aggression. okay, so mr. shout, i see that you were shaking your head at some point in disagreement with our... from beirot and looking at iran's record, well it's not the first time that iran has been put on the spot by israel uh where uh it was provoked to uh carry out some kind of attack where um create some kind of escalation in the region and when we look back in history every time iran has responded to these attacks but in a very strategic uh manner and with definitely uh consideration great. duration for the long-term consequences of whatever it does, so mr. shath, although we had the uh iranian ambassador clearly stating that iran will be

giving decisive response to this attack, what could that decisive response entil considering iran's history? you see, this is a significant escalation in its own and by targeting us. sovereign as i said territory of iran which is the embassy we when donald trump targeted the martur first lieutenant sulaimani and abu mahdi muhandis in in iraq when he was brokering peace at the time himself when was officially invited to the country uh the iranian government didn't wait and they devastated asad the biggest american uh military base around the world which is in iraq, they didn't, they didn't wait, it's it means a lot to the country to see its act and

straight away take it's not about tit and tat kind of activity, it's it's here, it's the dignity of the nation, the dignity of the people, it's the marters need to be revenged before as the the arab would say before the their blood dry on the ground so... that is kind of aggression, it's need to be responded to, when how that is up to the iranian people and the syrian government as well, since this is happened on syria's ground, syria is as well, i see is partly responsible, we know all the syrian air defense was destroyed from the the terror and takfiri war waged by the western and desanist countries in syria when they this... until they supposed to be revolutionary, the raiders and the anti-air missiles and that and kept syria is open and this is the result of their operation which

is organized by designs and the americans at the time, syria cannot defend itself, not not even 10%, i don't want to say more and from f30, 35 and sophisticated american weaponry, so the united states of america since the day it's put sanctions. against iran from the day the islamic revolution in 79 till today, it's put iran as the ballz as they say and it's target and the iranian people and the iranian government and leadership understand that very well, iran today is hundred times stronger than before and iran's today is scared them in the region because iran leading a resistant camp is on the win and putting the their projects of vegemany and the zionist project on the reverse so the the resistance or iran won't be afraid of of of

revenging the the the the martym of its own people. okay, so mr. waakim, we don't have much time left, but why do you think, and this recent sentence by mr. shath, which totally echoed the comments made by the iranian ambassador to damascus, that iran is not a... of israeli atrocities, where do you think this courage comes from and what exactly does that mean? well, of course iran has been able to build its power over the four, the past four decades or even five decades now, and it has sophisticated weapons, it was able to build its economy, despite the sanctions and despite the boycot imposed on it by the west, and lot of power. not only in the region but worldwide are relying on iranian weapons and technology now, but the the that's why "the iranians are

so confident in their stance and this has been experienced before, especially in confrontation with the united states, but so i believe that iran has the capability to react and to retaliate, however it's all about the timing, what would be the best time that iran would choose to retaliate? this is this is the question." well, thank you very much. i'm afraid that's all the time that we have, jamal wakim, professor of international relations from the lebanese university, joining us live from beirot and also sab shath author and west asia expert joining us live from belfast. thank you very much to both of you gentlemen for sharing your thoughts and views with us on this edition of spotlight. and thanks to all of you viewers for watching this edition.

صدق الله العلي العظيم.

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why the atomic bomb? why all the power? you scientists are blamed for the weapons to be used, killing innocent people to get what?

iran's consulat building in syria's capital damas damascus comes under attack, several people have been confirmed dead, including the commander of iran's irgc. iran and mos called for an international investigation of crimes committed in gaza's ali shafa hospital that was under iof attack for two weeks and the islamic resistance in iraq says it has staged fresh attacks on israeli targets and the port city of alat in response to the regime's genocide in gaza.